Is the Unsharp Mask really the only sharpening tool in DxO PhotoLab 9 for lenses without optical modules?

DxO PhotoLab
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I like shooting photos on my Nikon Z5ii using an array of manual focus Nikon AI and AI-s lenses, which lack electronic contacts and thus have no optical modules in DxO PhotoLab 9.

I just discovered that for these manual focus lenses, there is a really astonishing difference in sharpness between RAW photos processed using DxO PhotoLab and those processed with NX Studio. For example, I just bought a Nikkor 200mm f/4 AI lens. When processed using NX Studio (or even just taking the JPEGs straight out of camera), this lens looks stunningly sharp — probably out-resolving the 24 megapixel sensor. But when processed in DxO PhotoLab, the resulting photos look much, much softer — so much so that I initially thought I’d made a bad decision in buying the lens!

I really want to process my RAWs in DxO PhotoLab because the colours look better, it’s much faster, and has way more sophisticated controls. But I have to figure out a way around this sharpness issue!

As far as I can see, there is only one tool for adjusting sharpness for lenses that lack an optical module, the Unsharp Mask, and I have not had any luck improving the sharpness with this tool. Even ramping it up to 200% makes little perceivable difference.

Is there some set of tools that I’m not aware of in DxO that make my photos look as sharp as those output by NX Studio? It would be disappointing if I had to resort to NX Studio whenever my lens lacked an optical module.

Here is the output from DxO (obviously compare sharpness at 100%):

DSC_9900_DxO
DSC_9900_DxO1920×1280 145 KB

Here is a JPG straight out of camera:

DSC_9900
DSC_99001920×1280 145 KB

And here is a JPG from a RAW file processed in NX Studio. I added a bit of contrast and saturation to that one.

DSC_9900_01
DSC_9900_011920×1280 166 KB

Is there route to NX Studio levels of sharpness in DxO PhotoLab for these lenses?

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Going by your pics as they appear in the forum, I don’t see much difference in sharpness among them. Maybe in the branches, but not so much in the buds. The differences are more in contrast and saturation - or tonality, one might say. Try raising the microcontrast a bit in PhotoLab or maybe even add a small amount of ClearView Plus. Yes, with optics modules (allowing use of Lens Sharpness adjustments and DeepPRIME NR) you can easily get sharper images with fewer artifacts. However, I think PhotoLab can still produce great output with an unsharp mask and other tools.

If you’re still seeing what looks like true sharpness deficiencies, please share smaller crops at 100% and your PhotoLab settings.

3 Likes
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It seems the NX Studio put something like micro contrast, contrast and saturation ; the resulting photo is not quite natural in my advice.

If you prefer that rendering, you can apply those settings, as suggested by Egregious.